After announcing 12 of the 16 competitors for the round of 16 of their Under-22 Supernova Tournament on October 10th, Krush has announced the final 4 participants. The first is Silver Wolf's Shota Fukuda. Next is K&K Boxing Club's Hiroshi Matsui who is an interesting choice considering he's a welterweight and won a J-NETWORK rookie tournament at the weight. Hopefully, he'll be on weight. The last two competitors are Yukimitsu Takahashi and a fighter that goes by the name Violence. Honestly, I know nothing about any of these four, but if any were to make a splash, I'd say Matsui has the best credentials.

Also announced were the round of 16 matchups. The event on October 10th will be split into two segments, with blocks A and B holding their round of 16 and quarterfinal matchups during the day while blocks C and D will hold their two rounds in the evening.

Starting off block A, K-1 golden boy HIROYA takes on NJKF amateur prospect Hiroki Hoshikawa. In the other half of block A, K-1 Koshien product Sho Ogawa takes on Tang Tang Fight Club's Fumiya Osawa. From what I know of the fighters, this might be the hardest quarter of the bracket so it'll be a good test for HIROYA who's one of the tournament favorites. Hoshikawa could give HIROYA problems and so could Ogawa if he makes it past Osawa, but with the way HIROYA looked at the K-1 63kg Japan GP, I don't see him having much trouble.

Block B consists of K-1 Koshien 2009 champ Masaaki Noiri taking on Violence while Team Dragon's Daizo Sasaki takes on Shota Fukuda. Much like HIROYA, Noiri should get through with little trouble. I'd take Sasaki winning his fight over Fukuda, but losing to Noiri in the quarters. If HIROYA and Noiri win thier brackets, it'll mean another semifinal matchup for the two and the first time they've met since the K-1 Koshien 2009 semifinals at Dynamite.

Block C contains tournament favorite Koya Urabe taking on Yuta Otaki while Shimpei Keita goes against Hiroshi Matsui. Urabe should undoubtedly be favored to win his quarter with ease. The winner of Keita-Matsui won't be a pushover, but Urabe's beaten much better kickboxers.

Finally in block D, J-NETWORK Flyweight champion Tsukasa Fuji takes on Kengo Sonoda while Yukimitsu Takahashi fights Kazuma. The winner of Fuji-Sonoda should win this quarter easily. I would be a lot more confident in Fuji's chances if he didn't fight at such a low weight. Despite size, I'd put my money with Fuji to go on and face Urabe in the semis.

The structure of the brackets heavily pushes the odds onto Urabe's side. He was already the favorite heading into the tournament, but with a possible HIROYA-Noiri rematch on the other half of the bracket in the semifinals, Urabe should be the fresher fighter should he make it to the semifinals and win. {jcomments on}